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Resurgence and the Ecologist: A Shared Agenda

Taking a look at two pioneering publications at the forefront of the environmental movement

From Gaia to Greenpeace, Peace to Politics and Organic to Occupy, both Resurgence and Ecologist magazines spent decades bearing witness to the emergence of what is now known as the green movement. Following the merger of both titles in June 2012, in the first issue of Resurgence & Ecologist we revisited an earlier time when, just like today, we had joined forces to create a stronger voice for the whole environmental movement.

This earlier connection serves as a reminder that, whilst we may seem very different in our outlook and even our appearance, the shared goals of Resurgence and the Ecologist have never changed. It is a reminder too that this relationship stretches way, way back in time – and, in this instance, back to 1974, when we published a one-off joint issue promising we would do the same job that we continue to do today: the job of bearing witness, questioning the status quo and supporting those who have the courage to hold the big vision and work together to speak with one voice.

The first joint issue was in 1974:

The Ecologist Manifesto, 1974Describing itself as the Journal of the Post Industrial Age, The Ecologist stated: A totally new set of solutions is required to the problems that confront man today: poverty – unemployment – disease – malnutrition – crime – war – pollution etc. The need is for ecological solutions rather than technological ones, solutions that do not require the massive expenditure of ever scarcer resources, that solve problems rather than mask them by eradicating their symptoms, that lead to stability, rather than instability and collapse. The Ecologist – Journal of the Post Industrial Age, whose editors wrote the now famous Blueprint for Survival (1972), has for more than three years published articles that contribute to this end.

Resurgence Manifesto, 1974Describing itself as the Journal of the Fourth World, Resurgence stated: Resurgence is seeking answers to global problems of war, militarism, industrialism, pollution and alienation. It argues that many of these problems are now beyond solution because government and economic organisations have become too big and too centralised to be manageable. It asserts that these problems can only be solved if political and economic units are made small, technology simple and our mode of living organic. Hence, the Fourth World is the world of decentralized, small-scale forms of organisation, structured organically rather than mechanically and directed towards the fulfillment of human values rather than materialist objectives.